As legislators for the people of New York, you hold in your hands the power to define the rules we live by. The impact of your decisions affects millions of people, as citizens who live directly under your authority, and many more who live outside of the state but who are influenced by your decisions and guidance.

Today you prepare to convene to address daunting challenges.The state faces an overwhelming burden of debt.To pull the state from its financial morass will require enormous strength and fortitude to make very tough decisions.As stewards of the affairs of this state, you no longer have the luxury of saying “Yes” to everyone who asks for your blessing.

But another challenge faces you. Along with a question of financial prudence, you are being asked to make a decision of spiritual prudence, as well.The starkest of extremes have come before you on a single issue and are put before you to judge.On one side, the momentum of a long and illustrious march forwards to protect the rights and dignity of all people under the flag of “civil rights.”On the second, we hear the call to moral duty that demands obedience to a standard that comes from above the civil law from which your powers of government are based.

A difficult and challenging question has been thrust before you now.With matters of state, and other things political, to be a ruler means to decide between competing interests.Your decision will ultimately cause some people to rejoice and others to lament.The question of the definition of marriage is no different.You are well aware of the arguments that push both sides to call for your strong intervention on their behalf.

Please consider, however, one crucial point.You have certainly earned the distinction befitting your rank as senior statesmen of one of the most pre-eminent governments in the history of the world.You have won the trust and support of the people of your districts who rely on your wise guidance on their behalf, in deciding the matters of this state.This power and honor that you hold is given entirely to your discretion, within the rules of law and ethics that make up the canon of law of the state of New York.

But this power and honor that have been given you, come from the hand of the Almighty Gd Himself alone.Although He has vested in you, the power of free choice to determine the direction of the state, He has not relinquished His knowledge of the affairs of this world nor has He abdicated His power as sole Judge over all.The decisions you make now will have consequences.The goodness and blessing that you now enjoy can be taken from you, and from all the people of this state and nation, in the blink of an eye, should the Almighty Gd judge us as unworthy, Gd forbid.

The Almighty Gd forbids human beings from engaging in sexual immorality.This is a universal moral prohibition, binding on all mankind at all times.Included among the relationships prohibited to all human beings is homosexual activity, along with others like adultery and incest.To reflect on a reason, we might say that these prohibited relationships misdirect the awesome drive of human desire and squander its life-giving power in activities that can never give rise to the birth of children in the stable context of the relationship between a husband and wife as father and mother.

But ultimately all human reasoning must yield to a recognition that there is a Divine obligation on all human beings, supervening their rights, duties and powers as citizens of the state.The universal laws binding on all mankind were given by the Almighty Gd Himself to the ancestor of the human race, Noah, as a Code and contract for the spiritual and physical well-being of all societies.The explanations and interpretations of the Text were passed directly by Noah to his righteous descendants, specifically entrusted to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs of the Jewish people.The entire corpus of Divine law, including the code of Noah, was then given by the Almighty Gd Himself to be the exclusive possession of the Jewish people when He formed them as His nation by giving the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai.

We are grateful for the benefits we have enjoyed from this state.We are grateful for your wise leadership on so many issues.We wish you the greatest degree of help from Heaven in turning your minds and hearts to properly exercise the powers that have been given you to wisely impose the rule of rule of law on this state.May the Almighty Gd rejoice with your successes as you foster the development and recognition of the Divine nobility in every human being.